1. Field
Aspects of the present invention generally relate to an information processing system in which an image forming apparatus and an image processing controller perform image processing in cooperation with each other.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, demand for power saving of apparatuses such as an image forming apparatus has been increasing. There has been discussed a technique for shifting a power state of an image forming apparatus to a power saving state on the condition that the image forming apparatus has not been operated for a certain time (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-2500).
Such an image forming apparatus shifts to the power saving state if a certain time has elapsed since the end of print processing by a printer unit or scanner processing by a scanner unit or if a certain time has elapsed since the end of communication with an external apparatus. Furthermore, there has been discussed a technique for shifting the power state of the image forming apparatus to the power saving state if an error is caused in the image forming apparatus (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-122917).
In some cases, such an image forming apparatus is connected with an image processing controller that performs image processing in cooperation with the image forming apparatus. The image processing controller connected to the image forming apparatus prepares layout information and image data for outputting a print product from the image forming apparatus. The image processing controller periodically obtains information about the image forming apparatus (e.g., sheet feed stage information, sheet information, and toner information) from the image forming apparatus, and displays the obtained information about the image forming apparatus on a computer or the like of a user using the image forming apparatus. The information to be displayed includes error information about the image forming apparatus. When the image forming apparatus is in the process of recovery from an error, the image processing controller simply obtains the information about the image forming apparatus on a periodic basis without performing layout processing or processing for generating image data.
Even when such an image processing controller is connected to the image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus needs to shift to the power saving state if a certain time has elapsed since the end of the print processing by the image forming apparatus.
Despite the shift of the image forming apparatus to the power saving state, much consideration has not conventionally been given to the shift of the image processing controller to a power saving state. The image processing controller has been configured to shift to the power saving state upon receiving a job end notification from the image forming apparatus. For example, in a case where the image forming apparatus interrupts printing due to the occurrence of an error, the image processing controller has been unable to shift to the power saving state while the image forming apparatus is in the process of recovery. If the time for recovery is long, the image processing controller therefore remains unchanged without shifting to the power saving state for a long time, failing to achieve power saving.